Churchill: The Finest Half Hour

Winston Churchill experiences warfare on the Indian frontier at first hand - and builds a public profile in England with his reporting.

Young Winston Churchill heads off to the frontier of India, intent on making his name as a war correspondent and soldier, entering a world of "fever, dysentery and bullets."

The location of WInston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech - Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri - is now the home of America's National Churchill Museum.80 years on from the speech, Tim Riley, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum, talks to Prof. Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter about how the museum came to be and how it commemorates not only Churchill's famous address but his long career as a politician, author - and sometime painter.

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore the immediate reaction to Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech of March 1946 - and its enduring legacy.Outlining responses by everyone from members of the British public to Stalin (who denounced the speech in forthright terms), they show how an address made in a small town in Missouri echoed round the world.They ask how a rallying cry for freedom was received by African-Americans, particularly when the speech was delivered to an all-white audience in a segregated state.And they show how Churchill's phrase came to sum up the division of Europe, with the Soviet Union dominating "behind the Iron Curtain".

Dr Warren Dockter and Professor Richard Toye discuss the last eighteen months of the relationship between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevlet.They highlight the tensions leading up to 'Operation Overlord' - the Allied invasion of France carried out despite Churchill's preference for a continued attack through southern Europe.They explore the significance of the Yalta Conference in February 1945, when FDR, Stalin and Churchill - by now very much a minor figure relative to the leaders of the emerging superpowers - met to hammer out the future of Europe.Finally, the look at Churchill's eulogy in the House of Commons following President Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Was this speech, as some observers have suggested, lukewarm in its praise of FDR? Can we see in it any evidence that the relationship between the two leaders was less friiendly than four years of newsreel coverage had suggested?

How was it decided that only Germany's unconditonal surrender would end the war in Europe?How did Winston Churchill make the case for the 'Germany First' strategy in the US Congress?What happened when the Allies' 'Big Three' - Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin - met for the first time at the Tehran Conference of 1943?And when did Winston Churchill realise that Britain was now a junior partner alongside the two emerging superpowers. the USA and the USSR?Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter address these questions and more in this edition of Churchill: The Finest Half Hour.

Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter chart the beginnings of the wartime alliance between the United States and Great Britain and the birth of the "special relationship".They begin withChurchill's visit to Washington in December 1941, his major speeches to the US Congress and the Canadian Parliament and follow the dealings between America'sPresident Franklin Roosevelt and British Premier Winston Churchill as the new allies fight to turn the tide of the war during 1942.

"No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt."So Winston Churchill remembered his efforts to secure material support from the United States in the 18 months between taking office as Prime Minister and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought America into the Second World War.Professor Richard Toye and Dr. Warren Dockter explore the nuances and fascinating details of this courtship as President Roosevelt navigated domestic resistance to entering a European war. They discuss the Atlantic Conference of August 1941 and its careful presentation to Roosevelt and Churchill''s domestic audiences. And Churchill's reaction to the news of Pearl Harbor.